Human Rights

The issue of human rights was, for those
willing to see it, a burning one for many decades. After
the rise of Deng Xiaoping to power in the late 1970s, it
remained a central problem within Chinese political life,
although before 4 June, 1989, it was often not fashionable
for governments, in particular the U.S. government, to take
more than perfunctory notice of it.

Since 4 June, the Chinese authorities have
often given in to international pressure to ameliorate
human rights abuses in China, in particular when
high-profile dissidents have been concerned. However,
independent agencies specializing in human rights issues
(such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and
Human Rights in China) have for years meticulously
chronicled the on-going abuses of individuals within China.
The Chinese authorities argue that Western values
concerning human rights are unsuited to Chinese tradition
and reality. They place an emphasis on economic rights
(employment, food and shelter) over sovereign individual
rights. The claim is made that individual rights are only
possible when a nation's economy is more developed. Whether
that is true theoretically or not is highly debatable. What
is evident is that China is gradually changing due both to
internal and external pressures.

Communism, in theory, seeks to improve
the lives of the great majority. But for many Marxist
analysts, human rights as commonly defined are
"bourgeois" rights. Read "The State and Revolution," written by V. I. Lenin in 1917, which presents a
traditional Marxist view of human rights.

In a 1978 essay, "Human Rights in China," Simon Leys discusses human rights and the nature of
totalitarianism as perceived by some China "experts."

For more information and documents about human rights,
visit the following websites: